At a Glance

Well, just like most manufacturers across the realm, appliance companies under the same umbrella, produce identical appliances under different names. Today, we will discuss 2 brands under the same corporation: Thermador and Bosch.

Before we start, let's look at the companies.

Bosch

Bosch Home Appliances is part of BSH, Bosch and Siemens Home Appliance Group, based in Munich, Germany. As part of the third largest appliance manufacturer in the world, Bosch has been selling high-performance German-engineered appliances in the United States since 1991. Their factory in North Carolina is the largest appliance factory in the world.

Bosch started the trend of quieter, yet more affordable dishwashers. You can buy a very decent Bosch dishwasher for $769.

Bosch Dishwashers Series

Click for sound

You can watch this two-minute Bosch video to understand a bit more.

Thermador

Thermador is part of BSH Home Appliances Corporation, a fully-owned subsidiary of BSH Bosch. Founded in 1916 in California by William E. Cranston, and began as a manufacturer of electric items, most notably portable, and built-in heaters.

Twenty-five years ago, Thermador manufactured their own dishwashers with a patented steam process under the Thermador and Waste King name.

In 1998, Thermador became part of the Bosch company, and their dishwashers are relabeled Bosch dishwashers.

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For 20 years, Thermador dishwashers were mostly sold as free dishwashers in promotional Thermador packages.

In 2018, Thermador finally decided to distinguish their dishwashers from Bosch. While the layout is fairly similar, the quality of the racks, tines, and features have become noticeably different.

For the first time, they are now made in the same factory in North Carolina.

In this blog, we are going to compare 4 models, two from each brand with similar prices and/or features.

InfoLight Timer - timer projected on the floor displaying time left in the cycle

Star Lighting - choose between blue or white

MyWay Rack - a deeper rack that can hold items up to 4” tall

15 place setting

Adjustable Tines

4 rows, middle rack

2 back rows, lower rack

4 front rows, the lower rack

Ball bearing glide racks

Double Dipped Tines

Water Softener

2-year warranty

This dishwasher may be the best-featured dishwasher on the market.

The old Star Sapphire was compelling when purchased in a Thermador package with a $1,399 rebate (more about that later), but the new Star Sapphire is compelling on its own

If you are looking for a premium dishwasher, host a lot of parties, or have a big family and would like a dishwasher with faster cycles, then I highly suggest you stop here.

The new Star Sapphire has two key features that you’ll be hard pressed to find in any other dishwasher - the StarSpeed cycle and the StarDry cycle.

StarSpeed uses a space in the wall of the dishwasher to store hot water. It takes about 20 minutes to warm up the hot water, and then after that, only 20 mins to wash and dry the dishes.

While your dishes are washing, the dishwasher is warming up the next container of hot water so that subsequent cycles already have hot water ready to go.

You can run up to 5 subsequent cycles at 20 mins each. That means that you can run 5 loads of dishes in the same amount of time that it would take to run one load of dishes in any other dishwasher. How crazy is that?

The StarDry cycle is a feature you can only find in the Star Sapphire dishwasher and the regular Sapphire dishwasher.

If you’ve done some research, you should know by now that European style dishwashers don’t have heated dry options due to stringent energy standards.

Thermador is the only company to have found a solution. It implements a natural mineral, called Zeolite, to create a heated dry.

Zeolite is a mineral that emits heat upon the absorption of water. The heat emitted by the Zeolite is strong enough to dry even plastics! Goodbye, towel-drying your Tupperware!

While this dishwasher is not inexpensive, it’s the only dishwasher with this capability. The most similar dishwasher on the market in terms of speed and drying capability is the Miele Professional which retails for about $5,200.

For about half the price, the Thermador is extremely compelling. Paired with the Thermador range promotion, this dishwasher is only $1,400.

Most Reliable Dishwashers for 2019

Service Qty

Shipped Qty

Service Ratio

Signature Kitchen Suite

0

17

0.00 %

Whirlpool

44

1,030

4.27 %

Gaggenau

2

42

4.76 %

LG Electronics

4

78

5.13 %

Samsung

85

915

9.29 %

Maytag

3

29

10.34 %

Bosch Appliances

303

2,735

11.08 %

Miele

155

1,078

14.38 %

Kitchenaid

115

705

16.31 %

Thermador

123

711

17.30 %

Jenn-Air

170

908

18.72 %

Blomberg

6

28

21.43 %

Fisher & Paykel

42

175

24.00 %

Bosch - Benchmark

38

158

24.05 %

Asko

47

195

24.10 %

Amana

3

11

27.27 %

Grand Total

1,159

8,852

13.09 %

Yale Appliance is a servicing company, which puts us into a unique position of being able to look at our own statistics.

Bosch and Thermador both fall into a service rate of about 11-17%. However, the Thermador dishwasher is now manufactured in the more reliable American factory.

That being said, all these numbers should be a testament to the fact that dishwashers break.

Should I buy a Bosch or Thermador Dishwasher?

So, which one should you buy? Well, that really all depends.

Finally, if you’re purchasing Thermador cooking appliances and qualify for a $1,400 rebate, well it would be simply silly not to cash in on that.

Buy the Thermador of your choice as it will be less expensive than the comparable Bosch. The $1,399 Thermador will cost you nothing.

If you are a looking for a good and reliable dishwasher but don’t care about speed, flexibility, or any other features, buy a Bosch dishwasher. Bosch makes over 80 dishwashers. Click the link for the best 6.

If you would like something that is competitively priced and has some but not all of the features we described, chances are, Bosch makes it.

On the other hand, if you are looking for a premium dishwasher that has a quick turnover rate and a better dry, consider Thermador. Those are the two features that you really won’t find in any other dishwasher.

So Bosch will be cheaper with similar features. As a single piece, Bosch is the better buy.

Buy the Thermador with other Thermador cooking products, because the rebate is $1399 and will be cheaper than the Bosch.

However, the premium Thermador is compelling on its own if you want the quick, complete wash and dry cycles.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are Thermador and Bosch the same company?

Yes, Thermador is a division of Bosch.

What brand is the best dishwasher?

The best three are Miele, Bosch, and KitchenAid.

Are Bosch and Thermador high-end?

Bosch is medium to high, but Thermador is premium only.

Additional Resources

Want more information on dishwashers? Read the Yale Dishwashers Buying Guide with specs, features, and detailed profiles of all the major brands. Over 410,000 people have read a Yale Guide.

WHY SHOULD YOU TRUST US?

A few review sites have placed this at the bottom of their articles. So here is our take: Our mission is to find reliable products for you to buy. Other review sites may say this as well.

However, we don’t love every product. Quite frankly, it costs us way too much money in repair costs to support less reliable brands.

In fact, we sell fewer brands than most appliance stores. Here is why:

We feel it is our responsibility to repair your appliances after you buy them.

We now have 30 service technicians, each averaging 8-10 calls a day Monday through Friday, plus another 110 on Saturday. That's over 30,000 service calls logged in one year.

The labor rates of fixing an appliance do not come close to the true cost in any product’s warranty period.

That is why no major retailer has a service department. It costs too much labor, money and time.

Our Blog is a bit different than most others you will read. We cannot write glowing reviews of unreliable products.

Hopefully, the bloggers and organizations who write such glowing product reviews for every brand consider servicing these products first. Only then they will understand the consequences of their marketing.

Eric Trexler

Eric is an Appliance Sales Consultant at Yale Appliance and Lighting. Eric came to sales from the custom installation department and has expert insight on what happens behind the scenes. He is devoted to making sure every customer has the best experience that Yale has to offer. Eric grew up in Maine and loves the outdoors, from fishing to dirt biking.

A Note About Pricing

Pricing on this blog is for reference only and may include time sensitive rebates. We make every attempt to provide accurate pricing at time of publishing. Please call the stores for most accurate price.